Cape Cod, Plymouth and Salem
July 9, 2024
Our friends who have spent their lives exploring the world always stop at the visitor center in a new location, so that is precisely what we did on arriving in Cape Cod from Martha’s Vineyard.
A very kind snowbird named Glenn from Englewood, Florida spent almost a half hour sharing his favorite spots on Cape Cod. By the time he finished, we were well past lunch, so we took his advice and went to Captain Parker’s Pub in nearby Hyannis for chowder. His recipe has won the chowder contest on Cape Cod so many times he retired to Champion Status, so he went to Boston and won their chowder contest many times. Yep, it was the best we’ve ever had. It had just the right taste and texture, the size of clams and potatoes, and was made in small batches all day to be extra fresh.
We stopped at the JFK Hyannis Museum, which chronicled the Kennedy family’s ties to Cape Cod. There was one room about Bobby and a hallway upstairs about JFK Jr., but all the rest was on JFK. It is always sobering when such promising lives are cut short. Outside, we overheard a younger person telling friends, “I heard he was driving around in his convertible, and someone shot him. How sad.” Ignorance of history beyond unfathomable.
We stopped by an Amazon locker to pick up packages and drove up the cape to Dunes Edge, our campground near Provincetown. This campground is in the steep dunes area, but we got a “fairly” level site for the next week while we explored Cape Cod.
We took the Sunday Jazz Train, which I had booked previously, and then upgraded to the club car with the band.
We enjoyed a lovely lunch feeling quite elegant with the live music and view of the Cape Cod Canal. The drummer let Larry play during our ride and told him he had an excellent beat.
Another day, we explored some of the beaches and lighthouses at Cape Cod National Seashore. Of course, we had to go to the Nauset Lighthouse, which is THE iconic lighthouse on the Cape Cod Potato Chips bag!
We chatted with a ranger at the Salt Pond Visitor Center before watching several movies about park geology and history before we walked the Nauset Marsh Trail and took the shuttle out to Coast Guard Beach.
This beach ranks in the top 10 beaches in the US, so even though it was before noon on a Monday, it was already dotted with beachgoers.
We are still surprised by the warning signs for great white sharks at all the beachheads and the advice not to swim with the seals.
After a quick lunch at the Marconi Station Site, we visited the Highland Light and Museum.
Erosions of the cliffs necessitated relocating the lighthouse, and there was an engaging video to watch before climbing to the top. The view from the top was spellbinding, and I kept looking for whales while Larry peppered the volunteer with questions.
We booked a whale-watching tour early one afternoon, which allowed us to bike around Provincetown in the morning.
Sea Salt Tours has a 35-foot boat named Ragamuffin with six passengers and took us out to the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
The Bank is the feeding ground for whales, especially during the spring and summer months. Our little boat proved quite agile and fast, so we could spend time observing the seals off of Race Point on the way and maneuver quickly to whales.
We saw at least several humpback whales feeding, and on the return trip, we spotted a fin whale—over 80 feet long with a fin like a surfboard and a body like a torpedo.
Back on land, we got a treat at the Portuguese Bakery and then biked to the Pilgrims Monument and First Landing Site.
Though Plymouth claims the Pilgrims, they first landed on Cape Cod, explored the area for six weeks, and signed the Mayflower Compact in the harbor before going to an abandoned village in Plymouth. Provincetown erected a tall granite pillar on its tallest dune to remind Plymouth who was first.
We drove down the Cape to Harwich one morning to tour an organic cranberry bog farm. The tour lasted almost 90 minutes and followed what happens in a cranberry bog through each season. The actual flooded bog and harvesting last about 48 hours from start to finish, and then a big truck with a vacuum hose sucks up all the cranberries in under an hour. There are few independent bogs any longer as more giant corporations do most of the growing and keep prices low, crowding out the smaller farms. As with any farming, there are many perils and abundant government oversight.
We thought this road sign was humorous
We chose nearby Sesuit Harbor Cafe for lunch as they are renowned for their lobster rolls, so of course, the parking lot was full even before lunch. The line moved quickly, and soon, we were sitting with our lobster roll and tuna sashimi. Classic Cape Cod lobster rolls are cold with mayonnaise as the binder and may or may not have celery added. They were delicious, of course, but we prefer the ones from Mystic that are warm with garlic butter.
That evening, we returned to Provincetown for a sunset tour with Art’s Dune Tours. Our guide, Johansson, narrated the whole two hours, and we learned a good deal about the beach shacks and dunes in general, which were wider, taller, and more numerous than I’d anticipated. Fortunately, this area belongs to the National Park Service, which controls access to preserve the dunes and vegetation.
We watched the sunset from Herring Cove, and Larry snapped some nice photos.
As we were back after dark, our bike ride home across a busy road took some caution. We were on Cape Cod on July 4, and Larry grilled some excellent BBQ boneless beef ribs for lunch. Though there were fireworks that night, the evening rain shower and subsequent sunset were spectacular, too!
The refrigerator spooked us a little by getting too warm, and Larry figured out, with just minimal tools, that he needed to replace a failing relay for the DC heating element. We’ll use propane or AC until Larry can get a new relay.
On Friday, July 5, we left Cape Cod and drove to Plymouth, parking downtown close to Plymouth Rock and Mayflower II. I affectionately deemed it “Plymouth Pebble” as it is much smaller than it used to be due to previous generations chipping away souvenirs. It is well protected now with a sturdy monument!
We toured Mayflower II, which we had seen undergoing restoration in Mystic Seaport in 2019. The United Kingdom built the Mayflower II reproduction in 1958 as a gift for the WWII Alliance. It is generally faithful to the original, which was likely sold from scrap after it ended its life as a cargo ship in 1624. Our docents told us that the builders raised the ceilings in the cargo hold 8 inches since this ship would be a living museum with tours. The original Pilgrims spent all their time below deck as the sailors were not used to passengers and barely tolerated them. It was unbelievable that 102 pilgrims and their livestock were crammed into such a small space. They were tough!
Afterward, we walked around the waterfront and historical area, looking at the Pilgrim Mother statue, the Massasoit Statue, the 1749 Court House Museum, and the William Bradford Statue.
We spent two nights at the Wompatuck State Park and returned to Plymouth the next day to tour the Plymouth Patuxet Museum. The pilgrims took over the village of Patuxet after not finding suitable land on Cape Cod. Located in an area with good water, land, and fishing, the village had been abandoned after an epidemic in the Wampanoag native Americans. The Museum was a re-creation of the 1627 Village with knowledgeable and engaging period actors who interacted with us as they attended to their daily lives.
We spent several hours at the Museum before picking up the refrigerator relay at an Amazon Locker, which Larry had installed back at the campground. Success—the DC heating element for the refrigerator works again!
On our way to Salem, we stopped in Quincy for a coffee at the Original Dunkin’ Donuts.
In Salem, we had a gorgeous site on the water at Winter Island Campground, which afforded us a little breeze in this ninety-degree heat wave. It had an electric hookup, too, so we could run the much-needed air conditioner.
On our full day in Salem, we walked the two miles into town to the Visitor Center to pick up the first trolley for the narrated tour of Salem with its maritime history and, of course, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
We walked home past the Bewitched Statue, the Salem Maritime Historic District, and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables.
On Tuesday, July 9, we left Massachusetts, stopped at a Walmart in New Hampshire to stock up (no sales tax in this state!), and started our adventure in Maine!
Next, we go fishing….I mean catching!
My thoughts exactly
